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Word for the World - November 25

2016Nov 25

COMMENTS

Redemption of Possession

“who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.” (Ephesians 1:14, NASB95)

Gentile believers who have listened to the Gospel message and believed have been sealed in the Spirit. This is a wonderful guarantee of their full salvation. But this is also a wonderful “first installment” of God’s future fulfillment of His promises to the Jewish nation of Israel. If you’ve been following these devotionals, you know that first person plural pronouns in Ephesians 1 are a reference to Jewish believers. When gentiles are given the sealing of the Spirit, this very work is a pledge, or downpayment, in view of “the redemption of God’s own possession. God’s possession is the nation of Israel, as we have already presented.

So how does the salvation and sealing of gentile believers serve as a downpayment to the believing remnant of Israel? Because God promised Abraham that, through him, “all the families of the earth will be blessed.” When God displays that he is doing this, the children of Abraham can know that He is fulfilling the other promises as well.

So the Jew should be able to look to the Christian and rejoice in God’s work among gentiles, and the gentile should be able to see this work and rejoice with the Jew about the blessing that the Jewish nation will be when God has His possession in hand, to the praise of His glory!

In His Grace;

Dr. Randy White

For more solid Biblical teaching, including a daily radio broadcast
from Dr. White, please visit Randy White Ministries.